Carriage-lock.



Patented May l3, I902.

A. G. SNELL.

CARRIAGE LOCK.

(Application filed Oct. 16, 1901'.)

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WITNESSES.

THE uonms versus cp, PWDTO'LITHD"WASHlNGTONfU-C.

UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE.

ADOLPHUS G. SNELL, OF-NElV HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.

CARRIAGE-LOCK.

BP-ECIFIGATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 699,984, dated May 13, 1902.

7 Application filed October 16,1901. Serial No. 78,896r (No model.)

To ctZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ADOLPHUS G. SNELL, a citizen of the United States,residing at New Haven, county of New Haven, State of Connecticut, have invented a new-and useful Carriage-Lock, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to carriage-locks, so calledthat is, the devices by which the doors of carriages are retained in the closed position subject to the control of a lever upon the inner side of the door and a handle upon the outer side; and my invention has for its object to so improve the look by providing it with a universally-movable operating-hub or tumbler, as it is commonly known to the trade, that the spindle and handle may be applied'at any time without the necessity for a specially-skilled workman or special tools and all filing of the collar or hub or twisting or bending of the spindle shall be avoided. The desirability, in fact the requirement, for this invention arises owing to certain peculiarities in the art of carriage-building. In this art the putting on of the lock, likewise the threaded collar and the finishing of the outer 'side of the body and the door, is part of the duty of thebody-maker. The handles, however, are rigidly secured to the spindles, and the attachment of the spindle and handle to a carriage is part of the work of the trimmer and likely to be performed at a distant place and an uncertain number of months after the body is built.. Itis of course essential, especially in all'grades of fine car riages, that the handles shall correspond with the other trimmings of the carriage, and,fur-

thermore, that the collarin the outer face of the door be set at a right angle to the general plane of the outer face of the door-that is to say, the point of entry and direction of the spindle-opening in said collar must be such that the handle will conform to the lines of the outer face of the door. As the outer faces of the doors are more or less curved, it is ordinarily impossible to set the collar so that the spindle will register with the spindle-opening in the hub without filing the collar or hub, or both, or twisting or bending the spindle. The present practice in order to overcome this difficulty is to file away the spindle or twist or bend the spindle or file away the collar or the hub of the lock, or both, in brief to file anything or twist or bend anything in order to get the spindle to engage the hub, the fitting of the spindle being a matter that can onlybe left to skilled workmen and necessarily in the present mode of doing it requiring considerable time, thus adding appreciably to the cost of a carriage. My present invention enables me to wholly overcome this difficulty and to provide a carriage-door lock to which the handle and spindle may be fitted at any time and by any ordinary workman not necessarily specially skilled in the art Without special tools and without loss of time, thereby effecting an important saving in the cost of a carriage and wholly avoiding rattling of the spindle in its bearings. 1

\Vith this; end in view I have devised the novel improvement'in carriage-locks .which I will now describe, referring to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, and using reference characters to designate the several parts.

Figure 1 is an elevation of a portion of the inner face of, a carriage-door, showing the lock in position thereon, the spindle-nut be= ing removed and .the position of the hub or tumbler and the mode in which it acts to retract the bolt being indicated by dotted lines; Fig. 2, a section on the line 2 2 in Fig. 1, and Fig; 3 is an elevation and edge view of the hub detached. 1

A denotes acarriage-door; B, the look as a whole; C, the lock-bolt D, the spindle, and E the handle;

10 denotes the openings in the inner and outer face-plates of the lock, which receive thehub or tumbler F, G the usual externallythreaded collar in the outer face of the door, which forms the bearing for the outer end of the spindle, and 13 the nut by which the spindle is retained inplace and held against endwise movement.

The peculiarity of my invention is that the edge of the hub is a convex curve from side to side, as at 11. The openings 10 in the plates of the lock flare inward with a curve to correspond with the edge of the hub-that is to say, the diameter of openings 10 is least upon the outer sides of the plates and greatest upon the inner sides of the plates to adapt said openings to receive the conveXly-curved hub, as clearly shown in Fig. 2and the said hub is substantially sphericalthat is, it is practically ball-shaped except for the flat surfaces at the ends of the opening 12and therefore permits universal movement of said hub amply sufficient for the purposes of my invention, so that if the spindle enter the collar slightly above or below or either to the right or the left of a line cutting the geometrical center of the hub while the sides of the hub are lying parallel with the lock-plates it is a matter of no consequence whatever. It will be noted as the vitally-important feature of my invention that the spindle has full bearing, both in the collar and the hub under all circumstances and without bending or twisting the spindle or filing either collar or hub, so that the possibility of rattling after long-continued use is practically done away with.

In applying the handle and spindle toalock provided with myimprovement the operator simply passes the spindle inward through the collar and oscillates the hub from the inner side of the door until the angular opening in the hub, which I have indicated by 12, is in position to receive the spindle, this positioning of the hub being a matter requiring but an instants time and no special skill on the part of the operator.

It will of course be understood that the special construction of the lock itself is wholly unimportant so far as the principle of my invention is concerned. Ihave therefore merely indicated by dotted lines one mode of connection between the hub and the bolt. I wish it distinctly understood, however, that my invention is not limited to any special style of carriage-locks, but is applicable to any style of lock in which a bolt is retracted by means of a hub oscillated from the outer side of the door by means of a spindle.

Having thus described my invention, I claim 1. A carriage-lock having a substantially spherical operating-hub, whereby said hub may have universal movement in its casing for the purpose specified.

2. A carriage-lock having hub-openings in its plates made of least diameter on the outer side and flaring inward, and a substantially spherical hub to correspond with the openings, whereby said hub may have universal movement relatively to said openings, for the purpose specified.

3. A carriage-door lock, substantially as shown and described, having a hub provided with a spindle-opening, said hub being mounted for universal movement to adapt it to receive a spindle at other than a right angle to the plane of the lock.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ADOLPHUS G. SNELL Vitnesses:

WM. G. REDFIELD, II. G. REDFIELD. 

